The Domestic Season is 'go' for launch...

Amidst the fanfare and excitement of that tournament about to commence in New Zealand, the small matter of both the Aviva Premiership and the newly named mouthful, RaboDirect Pro12 kicked off in earnest this past weekend. The early weeks of the season in a world cup year is always doubly filled with intrigue – can those teams not as depleted take advantage and get off to a good start? Will it be business as usual for the leading clubs from last season? How will the defending champions fare?

RWC 2011 Profiles - Pool C - ITALY

Next in the series sees us take a look at the chances of Italy in Pool C, where they will face Australia, Ireland, Russia and the USA.

RWC2011 Profiles - Pool B - England

The old enemy, at least in my particular corner of the earth are heading into the world cup on the back of what could have been described in some circles as some of the most dismal performances ever seen. Basically speaking what’s gone wrong with the once mighty English juggernaut. Can we write them off for RWC 2011?

RWC2011 Profiles - Pool C - IRELAND

The profiles are coming thick and fast here at CTPE, and following on from yesterday's exposition of Australia, we now move onto Ireland...

RWC2011 Profiles - Pool B - Argentina

In an effort to avoid classic case self-loathing the team have agreed to steer clear of their homelands in the group break downs for the upcoming World Cup. With that lets get things kicked off with Pool B.

Argentina

So after 4 years of isolation the puma’s re-emerge to once again become world-beaters and dominate all before them in a display of goal kicking brilliant and bruising forward play…Well almost, lets break it down a bit...

RWC2011 Profiles - Pool C - AUSTRALIA

Conveniently timed to coincide with the mounting excitement of RWC 2011 in New Zealand, we thought we'd kick off with some profiles of the teams competing at this year's showpiece. Where better to start than this year's Tri Nations Champions, Australia?

A Hearty CTPE Welcome

When I was 7 years old struggling to tie up my first pair of boots rugby to me was a sort of mystical sport. It was played by my Uncles and Father in by gone eras of bad hair cuts and amateur warriors pursuing an oval ball on dire days in South County Dublin or as some would describe “Leinster Country”

The more I played the more I realized that this sense of mysticism is prevalent to even those that play the beloved game, could a centre tell you what goes on in the front row? Does a hooker understand the intricacies of the sublime drop goal? Does anyone know why in the name of Webb Ellis line out calls are so obscure?

So our mission here is to take you our illustrious reader behind the curtain of the rugby world. To speak on both the general and mysterious in this greatest of games, so come and join us, have some laughs and hopefully get something to talk about with your mates in between watching games with your mates.

What you’ll get with us is

1) In depth analysis of games

2) Team and player profiles

3) Examination of game nuance

4) Some laughs here and there

5) Articles written in the firm belief that we bring something to the table rather than just clogging your bandwith

Looking forward to speaking with you all

Jim, Paul and Dave aka the CTPE team